Thanks eberybuddy for the suggestions on the router and hard drive, turns out I didn't need them (except for Kulla's and Paul's suggestions and alternative, respectively). But now I have a better, more badass problem. You see, we're done developing our basement and our family's decided to turn it into an epic home theater powerhouse. But we need a device that can pull off media from the network, use it as an internet-enabled device to bring rich media to our home theatre, and use all/or most of the features it has.
So being the family's tech smartass, I've narrowed our choices down to three: Apple TV, a family-ish XBOX 360, or wait for a Logitech boxed-in Google TV device.
Why Apple TV? It works with iTunes, right? Right? I hope so. And because it's living on our network, we can just pull off media from it seamlessly, right? A reason I'm not jumping at getting it because I don't really trust iTunes. I've seen what it's done to Windows' computers' libraries, what limitations it has, and are all these things worth the cost of having access to a media monster? Maybe. I hope to God, so.
I'm an academic student in a strict asian family. Not much gaming can be done on a new XBOX 360, maybe some Kinect, if we decide to get it. I'll be using Windows Media Centre on it; I've seen what it can do, as well as use it as a mini-communications device, not as great as a computer, or GTV, but it's there at least. ****, this argument for XBOX 360 seemed so good in my head, now I'm sceptical about getting it. Daaaaaaaaaaamn.
Google TV. Chances are it'll brick the first day, I'll try and root it like I do with Android phones. Over the past year, I've equipped my family with Android smartphones, the green little robot integration with GTV is pretty seamless, right? Sucks that we have to wait a while for us Canadians to finally get our hands on a Logitech top-box, but I know for sure we won't get a TV with GTV on it. I think after writing all this out, my argument's probably leaning against this one; a downside to this is my impatience. I dunno...
As usual, with most BNB forum posts, I'm always in a rush, if none of this made any sense, just reply down there and I'll try and fix it on the go. Damnit, no Tapatalk, screw you custom code.
Spoiler for Old Topic Info:
And not just those sleek portable drives either, I mean the bulky big-ass external ones that you have to plug in.
Over the past year, I've bought a lot of awesome stuff. I've bought and sold a couple of phones for profit, made some money by rooting others' phones and bought some SIMs and USBs to help me accomplish these tasks as well as help me personalize my hacked phone to unlock its full potential AS WELL AS make it awesomely awesome perfect for me!
And because it's the end of the year, I don't wanna blow all my money (closest I have to a job is buying/selling phones, super pathetic), so I've narrowed down some shopping to 100 dollars! (Canadian, almost USD equivalent)
So let's jump out of the mobile world for once, and head on down to real-life tech problems (not saying that phones aren't real life, but I'm typing this in a hurry).
My old router is slow, clunky, and was the cheapest N router available when I bought it, as 50 bucks. I'm overdue for a new one, it's a year old and it's a total piece of ****. A new one would benefit me because for once, I won't have dead spots in the house, and 100 bucks can buy me a really good one (not as good as some, but why would I want a router so wide to fill a mansion?) Not specifically asking for recommendations, just whether or not I should get one...over....
A NEW HARD DRIVE! As mentioned above, it's the big pluggable-in ones. Why? I've always been too cheap to buy a valuable main backup resource and my mom loses data all the time (really ***** me off how she "accidentally" presses F10 occasionally during boot). Plus I'll be re-installing Windows with this, I've had windows.old with Vista, 7RC1 on this computer since July '09! I wanna clear up some space...
So, what should I get, what shouldn't I get. Don't ask me to put in more cash (I don't know how you'd ask, but avoid that), because I'm saving up for something grand, something probably mobile-phone related. ahem ahem.
Thanks in advance! I trust you all!
Author:
Adbot [ December 19th, 2010, 9:29 am ]
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Author:
Pfkninenines [ December 19th, 2010, 10:08 am ]
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Re: New Router or New Hard Drive?
If your router is 'slow' after one year, I'd question if it had issues.. Did you put any custom firmware on it to make it less sucky?
Given that the router works, I'd be tempted for a new HDD. Maybe I'm a bit bias since I really want a new HDD, but if you're running low on space / dont back up often enough, a spare HDD would come in handy.
If the dead spots can't be solved by better firmware or better antennas (you can build them very very cheap, so if you have external antennas, this might be worth looking into)/directional antennas, and the dead spots are an issue, I'd fix this before a new HDD. I got my Grandma her first router from TigerDirect for ~$40. It was a refurb unit from Netgear, one of the lower priced N models that would work with DD-WRT without fuss. It would have been 80-120 when new, but going for a year or so older model + having the option of DD-WRT, it's an instant win in my book. Given this, you'd still have ~60 to spend on a HDD, so something in the ~500gb range would be possible.
That's what I got a few months ago, a Hitachi 1TB HD. It's worked out quite well. If you want, you could also go for the 2TB version, if you're really gung ho. I believe they've just brought it out, since it wasn't being sold when I got mine.
Author:
Marking22 [ December 20th, 2010, 11:17 am ]
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Re: New Router or New Hard Drive?
I would go with the router since you have dead spots in your house.
Author:
Ranging God [ December 20th, 2010, 2:42 pm ]
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Re: New Router or New Hard Drive?
Well, I always hate losing network connection, so for me a new router would be what I would buy.
Author:
Duke Juker [ December 21st, 2010, 1:03 am ]
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Re: New Router or New Hard Drive?
You could go either way. Assuming you'll get whatever you don't choose later, I'd pick the HDD first. Unless you use the internet a whole lot and notice the difference in speed, you better deal with your space problem first. Either clean up your computer and get the router or just get a new HDD and not worry about space. There are some really great deals out there for both HDD and routers. Now is a great time to decide, but don't wait too long. xD
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Bryan [ December 23rd, 2010, 12:57 pm ]
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Re: New Router or New Hard Drive?
Wow, thanks everybody, but I believe I've found a deal for Future Shop's pre-Boxing Day sale! Tomorrow at 6 PM EST, I'll barge in their site and open my bookmarks to the following, a new HDD and a new router! The deals I've found were so unbelievable that my dad found some amazing ones too, so now I need another opinion of yours: Apple TV, or a new family-use XBOX 360? Reasons in the first post of the thread XD
Author:
Ranging God [ December 23rd, 2010, 1:25 pm ]
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Re: [UPDATE] iTv or XBOX 360? Or wait...?
I would either say the xbox360 and have it hook up to a PC with Windows Media Center, or a Google TV. Not the Apple TV since I would imagine it would be a lot more locked down than the Google TV, and I think judging from what you said about enjoying unlocking device, you would have much more fun with the Google TV.
Author:
Shane [ December 23rd, 2010, 3:56 pm ]
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Re: [UPDATE] iTv or XBOX 360? Or wait...?
I'm not sure how it would work from a Windows iTunes setup but Apple TV would by my choice. I love the fact that it just works with anything in any of the iTunes libraries in the house. Also it has the ability to pull contents from YouTube and Netflix.
The Apple TV is locked down but fussing with networking can be a lot of pain. It's something I've realized that I don't like doing. That's partly the reason I'm willing to give up the functionality of a full operating system for some simplicity.
What's also great about the Apple TV is it can be controlled from any iPhones/iPods/iPad's in the house. The AirPlay feature is very nice as well. Come to think of it, now that iOS 4.2 is available to me I should write an article on the subject of why Apple is the right choice for a home media setup...
Get the Xbox if you need a gaming system. I wouldn't fully want to use it as a media extender, as they call it.
Author:
Mike [ December 23rd, 2010, 4:19 pm ]
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Re: [UPDATE] iTv or XBOX 360? Or wait...?
The one deal on the seagate 2TB external hard drive for $120 is nice, but I didn't think any of the other hard drives are a good deal. They are all 5400 or 5900 rpm (I'm assuming because some of them don't say, and they wouldn't leave that detail off if it was more) but you can buy a 7200rpm hard drive and an enclosure separately for less than most of those sale prices on futureshops web flyers from MemoryExpress instead.
I didn't see any good deals on routers in those deals for boxing day either, they only had 2 cheap d-link routers.
Futureshop isn't that great for buying computer hardware most of the time. Or maybe I'm just wrong and you got some super secret deals
Back to the new topic though The deal on their 4GB Xbox for $130 is amazing though, you should definitely take that up if you can get one.
Author:
Magnegnagan [ December 23rd, 2010, 8:30 pm ]
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Re: [UPDATE] iTv or XBOX 360? Or wait...?
Wow nobody recommends Roku? what is wrong with you guys. Roku is cheap and probably one of the better options out there here is an article on it.
Shane, is there like apps or news sources that you can stream on the Apple TV? I'm still on analogue television signals, and by the time the digital conversion completes, I'll have an alternative to TV. I don't watch it much, but news would be nice. I'm for sure leaning against the XBOX, unless there's something-nah, screw it. Thanks!
EDIT: So, I was gonna try the Apple TV out today, return it if I didn't like it. But I couldn't. I brought 125 bucks today, and before I was checking out, I calculated the taxes came to 126, not enough (and a bit *****), are there any levies or stuff on the Apple TV?
Author:
Magnegnagan [ December 26th, 2010, 4:52 pm ]
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Re: [UPDATE] iTv or XBOX 360? Or wait...?
Apple TV does not currently have apps and Kinect does not currently support Netflix or Windows Media Center though it does support Zune, Last FM and Sky TV.
Author:
Bryan [ December 29th, 2010, 8:19 pm ]
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Re: [UPDATE] iTv or XBOX 360? Or wait...?
Went ahead and got the XBOX today, just to evaluate. **** guys, I know this thing won't be a keeper, but it seems so much easier to use than indexing iTunes libraries and all that stuff. Think I'll return this beast after increasing my gamerscore to a crazy amount and swap for the Apple TV, when they have one in stock...
Author:
Magnegnagan [ December 31st, 2010, 10:30 pm ]
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Re: [UPDATE] iTv or XBOX 360? Or wait...?
asovse1 wrote:
Went ahead and got the XBOX today, just to evaluate. **** guys, I know this thing won't be a keeper, but it seems so much easier to use than indexing iTunes libraries and all that stuff. Think I'll return this beast after increasing my gamerscore to a crazy amount and swap for the Apple TV, when they have one in stock...
For some reason i don't think that will work out to well. Good luck though.
The deal on their 4GB Xbox for $130 is amazing though, you should definitely take that up if you can get one.